Where's my wheelchair dude?
I've supressed many memories (you get too scared) but I must have at least 10
I had 5 grounders off sport routes in a 4 year period, all belay error.

One was from the anchors of Butts of Beef! I'd clipped in, sorted the rrope, leant back and then halfway down I went into free fall. The only thing that stopped me was that I landed on the run of rope between the belayer and 1st draw. I slid down that (which slowed me) and hit the belayer very hard with both feet, in the wedding tackle area. It was half an hour before he could start to shuffle out. I had burns on on hand as I'd obviously grabbed something.

One was a result of the gri gri handle being touched by the belayers body (he did the strange thing of clipping belay biner through both loops of his harness, which means there's a 50% chance of the grigri handle touching the body), there was no friction through that but he had deep burns on both hands and slowed me. It was a 12m fall onto a rock platform, I broke my coccyx and ankle.

I was cleaning Madge McDonald and after I'd removed the first draw, the belayer opened the handle of the grigri and I hit the ground hard.

I was on double ropes trying Slope 'n Sleazin and my belayer locked off only one of my 2 red ropes when I fell off the top (why not hold both?). I hit the back wall of the gully and then bounced down to the ground. For his sins he died soon after in NZ.

I pulled a block off a climb in the Wolgan, which knocked out my belayer (Glenn Tempest) and I caught myslef on a lower runner . I didn't hit the ground but he did as he was belaying lying on a tree branch

Here's a piece of physics for you, catching someone who's fallen 8m is the same as falling 8m. Kim fell of the then-unprotected start of Thin Time (there are now an extra 2 bolts in the start) and was zooming head first towards bad blocks so I caught him. I think we both ended up in hospital.

I fell about 10m into trees and landed on a steep scrubby slope aid soloing at Narrowneck without too much damage

I was starting to decend the Golden Streak boulder and fell off the top and landed on the ground between all the cannonball sized rocks without too much damage

Years earlier I was climbing with the school at Lindfield rocks and was setting up a toprope on abseil wall, not being too safe, when a puff on wind overbalanced me. I somehow landed on my feet and no-one noticed. I walked around the corner and Adrian said 'have you set that rope up already?' I said i needed another biner. I was virtually lying on my belly trying to clip the bolt next time- seems you can learn after all.

Pulled a runner on the start of RIP corner in the days before I had a cam small enough for the thin crack. Landed on my feet on a flat rock and Jeff Lamb grabbed me before I went over backwards off it.

Except it also counts as jumping down before the 1st gear, so I answered none. The dumb prick wouldn't get out of the way despite me saying "I'm coming down" and "falling" twice. He was directly below me standing on the only landing area that wasn't jagged rocks!

Three times a lady!
Twice off the same route at Nowra - my belayer blamed poor bolting. After the first deck out I passed the sharp end to him to give me time to gather my courage for a second shot. As it happens he fell off at the same place and I kept him off the ground, he lowered and jumped straight back on yo-yo style. He fell again at the same spot, but this time with an arm full of slack, I kept him off the ground again by stepping back and squatting down.
He then handed the sharp end back to me, I fell again at the same place and hit the deck. He still blamed stupid bolting despite not hitting the ground himself having fallen twice at the same place???? Go figure, there's just no learning for some people. Needless to say, we moved on to other routes that day and I climbed little with that person after that.

The third ground fall was off a short route near Beechworth after a cam busted out of a friable placement. I decided to move on and climb something else.

Never. Have absieled off an unevenly deployed rope down angular crack and fallen on head after jumping off palm beach boulder with toe still in pocket but am fairly fussy when it comes to who I climb with. Last trip to point perp. was with someone I didnt know very well and a few times at the first peice would look down and remind him that I would certainly hit the ground. I gave up after a while. I find that solid climbers tend to also know how to belay well, and while climbing it shouldnt be a thing to even consider if you want to give all your focus to the climbing. A good belayer should be mostly aware when a climber is about to fall, and should calculate where their climber is safe to land, and how much/little slack/jump/backward hauling to land them there, especially with big dicey runouts!! My partner is superlight and theres a few sport routes that I cant lead (stone roses, butts of beef etc) with her belaying. She has the sensibility to look up at the moves, the bolts, and say no. If it wasnt for her thinkyparts I probably would have hit the deck by now!!

on a slightly different subject what is it with people clipping a screwgate through the leg loop and waist rather than through just the belay loop? have not seen this anywhere apart from oz and to my knoweledge goes against (every?) harness manufactures instructions. can see multiple probs and only 2 reasons have been given to me which is they dont trust the belay loop - in which case either your harness is trashed and you should buy a new one or maybe take up another sport? and to orient an atc type belay device better, which is unnessery.
any one out there have a good reason for doing this that has passed me by?

on topic only once and that was low down 3m? and had no gear in so can only blame ............. oh the weather, breakfast, tiedness, wrong gear - ok ok it was all my fault, there, said it, its like therapy

My good reason, is I've only owned two harnesses that have belay loops, so for 20 years or so of my climbing career there were no belay loops, hence it feels wrong using it. I survived those 20 years, so clearly it works

On 1/03/2012 dicky wrote: >any one out there have a good reason for doing this that has passed me>by?

I have one which I use mainly when going up and down the rope for bolting work..clipping in jummars and gri-gri etc...I do use it for belaying...main reason is it fits snugger (that a word?) and can just leave there indefinitely when needed....not a case of not trusting belay loop..but having a biner attached to belay loop when not being used just shits me.

Once fell off whilst seconding an overhung pitch - with the massive amunts of rope stretch i generate i thought i was bound to hit the belay ledge but sailed past it before i recoiled back up to the ledge for a really soft landing - i didnt count this as part of my 2 in the poll.

I fell off Androceles at Werribe Gorge when I was new to leading trad. Pulling through the little overlap at about 4m, I messed it up, fell, and pulled out the sideways 1980's era Chounard stopper and Clog hex, landing on my hip and rolling down the hill a ways. This was (fortunately?) before the railing was installed. Also before I could afford cams.

On 1/03/2012 dicky wrote:>on a slightly different subject what is it with people clipping a screwgate>through the leg loop and waist rather than through just the belay loop?>have not seen this anywhere apart from oz and to my knoweledge goes against>(every?) harness manufactures instructions. can see multiple probs and>only 2 reasons have been given to me which is they dont trust the belay>loop - in which case either your harness is trashed and you should buy>a new one or maybe take up another sport? and to orient an atc type belay>device better, which is unnessery. >any one out there have a good reason for doing this that has passed me>by?

Well I used to do this from time to time with my atc because It holds the device parallel to my harness and prevents any side loading on the biner. I always use my belay loop when using my auto locker because I have a belay master biner.

Decked off a route at Hanging Rock (Vic) years ago. We were looking for some 14 around left from the steps (when my lead limit was about 15) and couldn't match up the route description against an obvious line.

This was back in the day when I thought guidebook writers were infallible.

So off I launched up something that matched the description better than anything else but was probably unclimbed. The second mistake was to allow my belayer to belay under some trees, well back from the cliff line. I placed a couple of bits of gear, still not sure how the line was going to go, and eventually launched up the blank wall hoping to find some holds. Didn't find any, came off, ripped gear, then with all the belay slack hit the ground hard and collected my head (helmeted) on a tree stump. Woke up some minutes later with lots of blood, hitched a ride to Kyneton Hospital and spent the night there. 13 stitches.

The leg loop and waist loop connection points have extra layers of protective material because they wear earlier than other points on the harness and are also the least visible. Or maybe the wear is more likely to go unnoticed?? By the time you see wear on the belay loop, you have more than likely worn into the structural material of the waist attachment and leg loop attachment points.
Installing a carabiner to replace a belay loop seems to shift the "belay loop" wear more to the leg loop attachment. However, I think the biggest wear factor would be the rope passing through the waist and leg loops as it is constantly moving as you climb. I reckon the belay loop lets the belay carabiner slide up and down freely and puts wear in a more visible area, which hopefully means you don't end up with an attachment point failure that you were not expecting (i.e. not seeing the wear hidden amongst waist/leg loop Vs wear on a highly visible harness component).
I also reckon that a less fluid belay loop (i.e carabiner) changes the comfort of the harness when loaded???